Demonically Tempted (Frostbite) (8 page)

Dane drove into a parking spot and cut the ignition of his rented car. He drew in a deep breath, which I took to mean he felt the energy here. Hell, even I could feel an increased energy causing the hair on my arms to rise because of the hoard of ghosts present.

Not only our group awaited us standing by a statue of a solider, but by the soldiers—ghosts—walking along the fields and looking upon the memorials.

I was out of the car in a jiffy and strode toward the group. Dane might feel their presence, but he’d have no idea of their location. I wasn’t so lucky and could see the twenty ghosts staring at us.

“I think there are more of them now,” Kipp said.

“I really hope that doesn’t mean this situation has gotten worse in a day,” I grumbled.

Once I reached the ghosts, I scanned their faces, and again was surprised at how afraid they appeared. Not a settling thought since whoever had scared them was a ghost they wanted me to deal with.

“You’ve come,” Holly said with a smile that didn’t hold happiness, but appeared to portray a friendly air. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. I haven’t gotten rid of it and right now, I’m beginning to think I don’t want to.”

Her smile grew. “But you’re here, so that’s a start.”

“They’re quite afraid, aren’t they?” Dane said. “The energy here is thick with fear.”

I didn’t bother looking at him to agree. He might
feel
them, but I could see the fright in their expressions. That worried me. “I take it the ghost is still around?” When they nodded, I added, “And he still feels threatening?”

“Very threatening,” Holly replied. “But things have changed a bit since last night. We’ve realized he’s not a ghost anymore.”

I gawked at her. When that got me nowhere, I glimpsed at Kipp. Even he appeared taken back.

“What do you mean, he’s not a ghost?” he asked.

“It’s quite strange, really. He has always come into existence, his presence is strong, but then he fades away.” She studied the others before focusing on me. “But we haven’t actually
seen
him.”

I wanted to smack my forehead. “You’re making no sense at all.”

“He doesn’t look like us,” the elderly gentleman said. “He’s shadow-like.”

“A shadow?” I repeated.

Dane frowned. “What’s a shadow?”

“The ghost.” I glanced at Holly. “Can you explain what that, in terms I’ll understand, means?”

“When we saw him before, he had no distinguishing features. I know how strange that sounds, but he looked like a shadow.”

I shivered, not sure why, but iciness crept up my spine nonetheless. “I’ve never seen that before.” I focused on Dane. “Have you ever heard of a ghost that looks like a shadow, but who isn’t a shadow anymore?”

His gaze darkened, yet instead of answering me, he simply said, “If the ghost isn’t this shadow anymore what is it?”

“It was the strangest thing,” Holly said. “Last night, we all went by the house he stays at to make sure he was still there. When we were there, a man—a living one—came out of the house.” She visibly shuddered. “But it was
him
.”

“The man was a ghost?” I gasped. “I mean, the ghost was a man?” Was my head screwed on straight?

“I know that sounds weird, but it’s true.”

I almost laughed—
almost
. Weird was my standing in the middle of the park, in the daytime talking to a bunch of ghost, but what she said was just fucked up.

“Did he say anything to you?” Kipp asked.

She shook her head. “He only stared us at, smiling, and it was enough to spook us. We left.”

Unable to help it, I rolled my eyes. “You were spooked by a ghost or a man-ghost?”

They all nodded.

I pondered. A ghost wasn’t a ghost, but a shadow. The shadow wasn’t a shadow, but a man. Had anything ever been more confusing? I turned to Dane. “Have you ever dealt with a situation like this before?”

He parted his mouth to reply when a few of the soldiers approached, then he sucked in a harsh breath, clearly reacting to the spirits.

Uniforms decorated their bodies, and confusion spread across their faces. By the look of their uniforms, they’d been here since World War I.

“You can see us, can’t you?” one of them said.

My heart clenched. These men fought for the freedom I held. It hurt to see them lost like this. “Yes, I can—”

“You, ghosts who just appeared, are to leave her alone,” Dane interjected in a curt tone. “Be gone with you. Now.”

I blinked, and to my utter shock, the soldiers vanished from sight. The ghosts around me all gasped and appeared more afraid than I thought possible, considering they all looked scared shitless a second ago.

Before I had a chance to understand what had happened, or deal with Dane appropriately, he continued, “Tess has offered to help you—which is kind of her—but after this you’ll
not
approach her again.”

I jerked my head toward him, totally stunned that his words held that much strength and that he made those ghosts vanish from sight. “What did you do to them?”

“Yes, what the fuck did
you
do?” Kipp sneered.

“You need to put up some boundaries,” Dane replied, unnerved. “They are ghosts and need to be treated as such. They have no right coming into your house, approaching you anywhere they want, and making demands of you.”

My mouth dropped open at the rage that seethed off his tone. Now I understood his reaction earlier when we discussed this. Sure, I’d always thought of ghosts as annoying, but I thought of them as people. And no one deserved to be talked to that way. “Listen you, show a little more respect to the dead, will ya?”

Dane shook his head. “You need to stop opening yourself up like you do. It’s dangerous. You’re the one in control. Not
them
.”

“For someone who’s a medium, you’d think you would show a little more compassion.”

He arched an eyebrow in the most arrogant of ways. “I do have compassion. I’m willing to help them and I’ve done so on many occasions. But it doesn’t change the fact they are
ghosts
and I help them on my terms. So should you.”

“Fuck off,” Kipp all but spat.

I kept my attention on Dane. “Yes, well, they were afraid and needed help.” Why was I defending them?

“Which you’ve offered and that’s your choice. But there are rules they must adhere to. If you never define those rules, you’ll be controlled by them. That’s not right.”

“What do you mean
rules
?”

He sighed, exasperated. “Your lack of knowledge seriously worries me. You have the strength to tell them to go away. Tell them not to enter your house. You have to put rules up they must follow. For some reason you don’t seem to do it.”

“I don’t do it, because I didn’t know I could,” I retorted with a bite to each word. “So how ‘bout you stop being such a jackass and explain it to me.”

Kipp chuckled. “That’s my girl.”

Dane clearly didn’t share in Kipp’s amusement since he scowled at me. “If you tell ghosts to stay out of your house, they won’t be allowed in because you’re the
living
person and remain in this world. They do not.”

“Oh,” I replied, mainly because I hadn’t known it was that easy. For years, I ran and hid from ghosts following me. Ignored them. Was it just that easy to
tell
them to go away and they would?

Dane glanced around, clearly not seeing what I could, but appeared to stare at each ghost here. “I’ve made it known that they’re not to bother you again.”

My jaw tightened at the indifference he portrayed. I understood why he made that point, but I wasn’t sure I liked it. As much as ghosts had gotten to me over the years, I’d accepted my path now and if they were in danger or needed help, I’d chosen to assist them. “Ignore him.”

“What?” Dane shot back.

“It’s my choice how I do things. Sure, I don’t want them in my house—at inappropriate times—but if they need my help, I’ll never turn them away.”

“It’s one thing to help. It’s another to let them control you. You let them have the power. And that’s
not
their right.”

I narrowed my eyes on him. “I’d prefer if you would stop talking like that. Either find something nice to say, or shut the hell up.”

Kipp laughed.

Dane sucked in a deep breath and focused on me so intently, searching for something. “You’re going to get yourself into trouble.”

I waved away his remark. “Yeah, what else is new?” Done with him, this conversation, and his anger, I said to Holly, “Tell us where this ghost is?”

Holly looked around frantically, seemingly stunned by the conversation with Dane. “At an abandoned house on Chelsea Avenue.” Her attention came fully onto me. “Trust me, you’ll know the house the second you walk down the street. I suspect you’ll sense his presence, just as we have, but he tends to come out of the house. So we all avoid that area as much as possible now.”

“What do you mean he
comes out
? Like to take a stroll around the neighborhood?”

“I’m not sure what he does when he leaves the house. No one sticks around to find out.”

I pondered all this, but had trouble imagining what she offered and said, “How do you know that he’s a
bad
ghost or man, I should say?” Seriously, had anything ever been so ridiculous? “What sort of feelings do you get off him?”

“Just wrongness. He hasn’t hurt any of us, yet.” She didn’t fail to add that. “But I wouldn’t put it past him.” That same fear sped across her face. “I had the feeling when I first encountered him that he would destroy me if I got in his way.”

“Sounds like someone I
definitely
want to meet.” I snorted softly.

Kipp grinned. “Ask numb-nuts if ghosts have the ability to hurt you?”

I smiled at my ghost, adoring that his concern was first and foremost for my safety. I glanced at Dane who appeared frustrated that he wasn’t hearing all of the conversation, but I could hardly care about
him
. “You said before that I could be in danger. What does that mean?”

“Exactly what you think it means.”

I gulped. “Could a ghost kill me?”

“Not in the way you’re thinking,” he said, as if he choose his words carefully. “But you’re more threatening to a ghost than you would be if you didn’t hold these gifts. They will know you have the knowledge to get rid of them—or suspect you do—and if they didn’t want that then you could imagine their reaction.”

Did he just answer my question or avoid it? “Yes, well, that’s shitty and all, but what would a ghost
do
to me in that situation?”

“They could trap your soul.”

I laughed, even if it did sound nervous. “Yeah, right.”

No hesitation crossed his features. “It’s why I said it’s important I come with you. Not only to see what you’re up against, but I need to teach you how to close yourself off. You complain they’re always intruding on you, but the truth is, you allow it.”

“I allow nothing of the sort,” I retorted.

“You do. You just don’t know it.” There was his knowing look again. “By allowing them to have so much control, you leave yourself defenseless. Meaning, a ghost could do whatever they wanted to if you let them—because you don’t realize the power you hold—and that includes stealing your soul. Trust me when I tell you, this would be far worse than death. Any dark spirit that entered your body would seek to destroy you as painfully as possible.”

“Ask him more about this, Tess,” Kipp said. “If you need protection, we have to know how to get it.”

“Fine.” I huffed, forcing myself to keep from glaring about Dane’s continuing assumption that I had no sense at all, but kept it close by just in case he deserved it. “What do I need to do?”

“You need to stop letting them in.”

I urged him on with a wave of my hand. “Which means, in English?”

“Since you refuse to listen to me about how to keep them out, and insist on seeing what I’m telling you is for your own good, we’ll need to go about it in a different way until I get you to see sense.”

He dug into his pocket and held out a gold medallion strung through a black ribbon. “Turn around.” He stepped forward. “I suspected I might need this for you and you’re only lucky I thought ahead.”

I caught a quick glimpse at the necklace. Engraved into the round medallion was a warrior of some type holding a sword out in front of him. I peeked sideways at Kipp, and he nodded, so I obliged.

Dane swept my hair over my shoulder, and his fingers skimmed along my neck. My eyes fluttered closed as energy swept through me. Whatever power he held or maybe because of our shared connection, affected me right down to my toes.

He wrapped the ribbon around my neck, tying it to sit like a choker against my skin. I reached up and ran my fingers over the warm metal. “What is it?”

“It’s the Archangel Michael.”

I spun around and laughed. “Some Archangel is going to protect me from spirits who wish me harm?”

“Who do you think fought off evil before we did?”

“Okay, first off…” I gulped. “I don’t fight anything
evil
, and second, are you seriously suggesting that you believe in the Archangels?”

“It’s not a matter of believe or not believe. I’ve seen the strength of these symbols, this magic—”

“Whoa!” I raised my hand cutting him off. “Hold up, there. Don’t go spitting out about magic as if it’s normal conversation.”

He sighed, shaking his head at me. “I have a hard time understanding how this is all so unbelievable to you. You see ghosts. Yet, an angel, a protector, and magic that offers a way to guard us is completely mind-blowing to you.”

I gave a firm nod. “Yes, it’s completely mind-
fucking
blowing to me. What kind of magic is this that you’re talking about?”

“Spells.”

The more he spoke, the more I realized I didn’t know jack-shit about this man. “How do you know about spells?” At his arched eyebrow, I added, “Okay, so you’ve used spells before and they’ve worked?”

“Every single time. I’ve been doing this for years, Tess.” He lifted his chin, widened his stance. “Before I joined the F.B.I., I dealt with things you couldn’t even imagine. And that’s exactly why I’m coming down on you. I know things you don’t. I’ve seen things you haven’t.”